If you’re a fan of ‘Star Wars’ or 
‘The Lord of the Rings’, you’re intimately familiar with Hollywood’s practice of repackaging hit films, adding a bit of polish or new content and enticing you to pay for yet another ticket or version of the DVD.
It’s one of the best ways for studios to make money off old franchises — and now the video game industry is starting to follow in its footsteps.
Spotify, the music streaming service 
that is the toast of Europe, is finally on the way to the U.S.
The company launched a landing page today for Americans to sign up for an invite to the service, though stopped short of providing launch details. That’s not likely to discourage fan, though, who have been patiently waiting for it to clear deals with recording companies and get clearance to launch here.
An Irish teen has learned the 
hard way that breaking the law can be a losing game. Literally.
A judge in Belfast ordered a boy accused of a series of robberies — including a shopping center and high school — to surrender his Xbox 360 as part of the conditions for him to receive bail late last month.
Looks like Google’s plans 
to take its movie rental service on the road are about to get rolling.
The Android App marketplace briefly offered a Google-branded movie rental app for a short period last Friday, according to published reports. It was yanked quickly, but that still seemingly indicates an imminent widespread release.
The long-awaited initial public offering for Zynga 
is reality — but as some investors celebrate, others wonder whether the numbers being discussed in conjunction with the company are a sign that we’re in the middle of another Internet stock bubble.
Zynga, the maker of massively popular Facebook games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars, filed for an IPO Friday and said it plans to raise $1 billion — – a figure that is expected to go higher by the time its shares begin trading.
If we’ve learned one thing 
from today’s long-awaited Zynga IPO filing, it’s this: Damn, would it be nice to be Mark Pincus.
The founder and CEO of the social games juggernaut stands to make an insane amount of money when trading of the company begins on Wall St. (likely 3-4 months from now). He’s already bucks up from selling 7.8 million shares back to the company in March for $100 million – and he’s still holding another 105 million shares in his portfolio. It’s nothing short of a massive payoff for his four-year old company.
At long last, Zynga has 
confirmed its plans to go public.
The company on Friday filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission, announcing plans to raise $1 billion through publicly traded shares. That wasn’t the interesting part, though. The really fascinating stuff was in the details.
FarmVille is headed 
to Wall Street.
Zynga, the maker of that massively popular Facebook game — and several others — has filed the paperwork for an Initial Public Offering.The four-year old firm says it expects to raise $1 billion in the process, though it’s possible (and, in fact, expected) that it could offer more shares and raise more money when the stock eventually begins trading.
The just-started NBA 
lockout is already having far-reaching effects.
Beyond what players, coaches and team owners are going through (and, of course, fans of live games), the television industry is scrambling to find ways to fill the possible holes in their schedule. Meanwhile, video game companies are trying to determine the ramifications for some of their biggest franchises, while NBA.com webmasters have had a busy few days. Let’s break it down by industry.
The biggest company in social 
network gaming is poised to become the biggest publicly-traded company in the video game industry.
Zynga, the maker of massively popular Facebook games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars, has filed the paperwork for an Initial Public Offering, where it says it hopes to raise $1 billion. That’s lower than some investors were expecting, but is likely to increase as bankers determine the offering price and how many shares should be sold.
Chris Morris: Journalist 